Quote Originally Posted by Skrum View Post
Well lemme tell you my skill challenge journey

The table I play at attempted to bring skills to a more central role in the game. So, DMs started doing simple skill challenges: the DM would describe a scenario, and then each player would get the opportunity to narrate how they contribute. The DC would be set at some number (+/- 15 usually), and each character could use a skill of their choice. And the object of it was to get X successes before Y failures. It was fun enough, at first, but the fact that people can choose any skill they want led to some narrative contortions (we'd joke about Athletics being used to "set the pace, power ahead, blaze a trail...).

DMs got fancier and more complicated with it over time; some would dictate more specific scenarios where the party had to use 1 of maybe 3 specific skills, so players couldn't just constantly use their best skill. That was an improvement IMO, but there's still a "funny time" quality to it; like the game was pausing to do this little skill challenge mini game.

And that brings me to my complaint about skills that I haven't thought of a good way to fix: skills are dumb luck. There's almost no satisfaction is rolling a good skill check, and no particular agency in their use. Classes like barb might be notoriously limited in what they can do, even in combat, but even a barb gets to decide things round to round - movement, grapples, using GWM, shoving, etc etc etc. Yes, heinous rolls can ruin even the best-laid plans but there's still a good deal of agency involved. Skills just don't have that. Getting the "option" to use athletics to jump a river or persuasion to convince the toll collector to let you use the bridge isn't much of a choice if your athletics is +9 and persuasion is -1. There's hardly ever meaningful choice in skill checks, as one of a couple things happens

1) The DM calls for a check you're good at. Yay!
2) The DM calls for a check you're bad at. Oh noes!
3) The DM describes a scenario and asks what you want to do. You narrate how you can use the skill you're good at.
3) A) The DM buys it. Yay!
3) B) The DM says that's dumb. Oh noes!

None of that to me is being tactical, or expressing real choice, not in the way combat choices are a choice.

And like, skill checks don't have to be literally as complicated with as robust a system as combat. But some way to bring actual agency to the skill system would be awesome.
Going back to the 'factor set' thing I mentioned before, imagine setting up the drought scenario within that framing.

The initial factor cards are:
- Crop Failure: If this card is still in play in two weeks, it converts to the Food Shortage card. Furthermore, this card reduces the degree to which the locals are willing to cooperate with any plans by 1 level.
- Wildfires: While this card is in play, each week 10% of the population will need to evacuate the area or die, and a major building will be destroyed. Fires may also strike at random, preventing any plans that involve construction. Furthermore, this card reduces the degree to which the locals are willing to cooperate with any plans by 1 level.
- Water Shortage: While this card is in play, 10% of the population will die of thirst each week. Furthermore, this card reduces the degree to which the locals are willing to cooperate with any plans by 1 level.
- Heatwave: While this card is in play, any actions taken by PCs or locals incur one level of Exhaustion per hour unless the character is protected from extreme heat. So long as this card is in play, the Wildfires and Water Shortage cards return each week if otherwise temporarily dealt with. Reduces local labor power by 2 levels.

- Rainshadow: Local weather patterns mean that air coming down off of the nearby mountain is dry and hot. Heatwave Factor - if there are at least three Heatwave Factor cards present, the Heatwave card returns each week.
- Summer Weather: It is currently the hot and dry time of year. As long as this persists, this card is a Heatwave Factor
- Pyromancer Enclave: A group of pyromancers are doing large-scale fire magic nearby, amplifying the hot and dry circumstances. This card is a Heatwave Factor
- Vanishing Snowmelt: Permafrost in the nearby mountains has reduced over past years, and snowmelt is not providing enough water for the old riverways to run. This card is a Heatwave Factor.

Other relevant factor cards:
- Food Shortage: While this card is in play, 5% of the population will die of hunger each week. Furthermore, this card reduces the degree to which the locals are willing to cooperate with any plans by 1 level.
- Rampant Disease: If over 100 people die and are not properly buried or cremated, this card appears. Reduces local labor power by 2 levels.

Scenario Goal:
- Remove the Heatwave card.

Then you have resource pools:

- Local cooperativity: 0 is neutral, modified down to -2 by Crop Failure and Water Shortage. Must be positive for any plan involving local participation. Must be 3+ for any plan involving local sacrifices.
- Local labor: 3 baseline, reduced 2 due to Heatwave to 1. Determines the manpower (and therefore speed of completion) for projects involving locals working to help. At 1, you might get a local to guide you around. A small work crew of 10 people could be spared at 2, a large work crew of 100 at 3, etc.

Then, you can have a number of skillful actions that interact with these states. Morale-boosting or diplomatic acts can increase Cooperativity in mechanically specified ways. Sourcing supplies of food or water could temporarily remove those shortages and free people up for larger plans. Building permanent lines of trade or diverting a river could permanently remove shortages. An individual character might not be able to do things like make fire breaks to remove the Wildfires danger (but maybe a high enough level/stat/etc character could?) but if you can hit the minimum local labor rating required you can just have a work crew do it - at 2 it might take a month but at 3 it could be done in 3 days, so it matters a lot as far as how much damage the wildfires will do in the end.

Some actions might convert one card into another. Setting up lines of trade to transport water over might create a card Water Trade - As long as the town has wealth, the Water Shortage card is suppressed. Maybe there's something you can do to redirect a river towards the town, effectively converting the Vanishing Snowmelt card into Flash Flooding. Etc.

Yes, its still going to be the DM adjudicating what sorts of transformations happen. But there's a bit more of a framework saying 'why is this situation happening', 'what does movement through the space of situations look like?', etc. You could make it more quantitative, focusing on general rules for things like local labor that will apply across all scenarios, or you could drop or abstract those elements into a single card like 'Local Panic - as long as there are immediate threats to life and limb, the locals will not lend aid to your plans' or just leave it to narration and table discussion.

5e skills aren't really quite the right skills for this kind of thing though. Honestly, just having lots of examples of big things you can do - organize a trade route; construct a building, a channel, a bridge; determine the causes of a natural phenomenon and how it could be interferred with; etc, would help. With those bigger scope examples, you wouldn't necessarily need to be so detailed with the factor cards and their transformations because it would be implied by the more expansive text. Yes, your character with proficiency in Survival can redirect a river or cause a landslide with a week's labor. Or is it Strength + Architecture? ...